Moon rises in ratings after Pyongyang summit

SEOUL,. South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating jumped this week as he basked in an intense media focus on his summit with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, a survey showed today.

Seoul’s leader had seen his ratings fall to the lowest of his presidency earlier this month, in the face of a struggling economy with rising unemployment and high house prices.

But it leaped 11 points to 61 per cent in a Gallup Korea survey of 1,001 people conducted from Tuesday through yesterday.

The rise “can be seen as an effect of the third inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang”, Gallup Korea said.

Those with negative views of Moon’s performance fell 9 percentage points to 30 per cent, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

In Pyongyang, Kim agreed to close a missile testing site, giving new momentum to nuclear negotiations with the US, and said the North could dismantle its best-known nuclear facility at Yongbyon, if the US takes “corresponding measures”.

The two Koreas signed an agreement aimed at reducing military tensions, agreed to pursue increased inter-Korean exchanges and economic cooperation, and to jointly bid for the 2032 Olympics.

According to analysts the North only made limited concessions at the summit.

But another survey by Realmeter today showed 71.6 per cent of respondents backing the outcomes of the meeting, with 22.1 per cent giving a negative assessment. — AFP